British comedian Mel Smith, who became a household name in Britain for a series of television sketch shows in the 1970s and 80s which colleagues said had inspired a generation of comics, has died of a heart attack aged 60.

Smith died on Friday, his agent said.

Smith found fame starring in hugely popular shows Not The Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones, and went on to direct the films Bean and The Tall Guy.

"I still can't believe this has happened," Griff Rhys Jones, his comedy partner in his best-known TV shows, said.

"To everybody who ever met him, Mel was a force for life. He was a gentleman and a scholar, a gambler and a wit."

The pair formed Talkback, a highly successful independent TV production house that spawned many hit British comedies including the Ali G series, which gave Sacha Baron Cohen his first big television break.